There are many industrial processes in which it is desirable to sense conditions existing in a process stream by means of a sensor mounted within an instrumentation probe. Typical instrumentation probes consist of a generally tubular housing which projects into the process stream for sensing conditions in the process stream. Frequently, the process stream contains erosive particles, as is the case, for example, in fluid catalytic cracking and similar processes. These erosive particles erode the probe over time, which is highly undesirable. Considerable effort, therefore, has been directed in the process industry toward developing erosion resistant alloys and erosion resistant coatings for instrumentation probes. Notwithstanding these activities, there still remains a need for improved erosion and corrosion resistant instrumentation probes.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved instrumentation probes for use especially in erosive environments.
It is another object of the present invention to provide improvements in instrumentation probes for retrofitting of existing sensor probes.